Conflicting advice from Mothercare and Halfords

[maysielu]

Hope someone can help on this...

Unfortunately I have a 2002 Astra which leaves me limited in car seat choice and I've gone for a Britax First Class which, according to their fit finder, is fine for the car. However, I have been told by Mothercare (who I bought it from) that the buckle strap needs shortening as it is too long for the rear facing position.

So I took it over the retail park car park to Halfords to see if it was something they would do. Chap from Halfords disagreed and thinks it's ok. The difference between their opinions seems to be based on the fact that the Mothercare 'fitter' could press on the back of the chair and it would move forward and "this shouldn't happen and is due to the belt not being able to tighten properly because the buckle strap is too long". She wasn't pressing hard at all. Halfords 'fitter' pressed hard on the back of the chair, the belt locked as you would expect it to and he said that that was what they had been told by Britax - replicate how hard the seat is going to move in a collision/emergency stop and check everything locks and stays in one place. As far as he is concerned seatbelt crunch is only an issue when in the forward setting and can easily be overcome by feeding the strap through an alternative route.

To complicate matters further OH was talking to someone today who has recently left Mothercare who was a trained seat fitter and she said that the Britax First Class doesn;t fit into an Astra in its rear facing position without getting the strap shortened and has advised us to get a particular Maxi Cosi one. Of course, the Maxi Cosi fit finder doesn't have any astras on it older than 2005 so I can;t double check the one that has been suggested.

So basically...my question is...has anyone else with an Astra had this conflicting advice? Has anyone got their buckle strap shortened and where did they get it done? Whilst I can see the Halfords guy's point, I'm hovering more towards the 'get it shortened, it's not going to do any harm' decision with an added dollop of anxiety about it not being safe if it's not shortened, so will probably see if Halfords will actually do it. I know Vauxhall won't...I went past them today so thought I'd pop in and ask and they just told me that I had obviously bought the wrong car seat and they would never shorten a seatbelt!

Have you read the instructions or watched the online fitting videos? The suitability of the seat is not based on how far it moves if you push it, it's to do with the position of the buckle in relation to the seat and whether it touches it or not.

In the instructions it states "the buckle of the vehicle seat must not be positioned in the light blue (38) belt guide (39) or reach so far forwards that it is positioned in front of the light blue belt guide". The numbers refer to the pictures in the booklet.

As far as I'm aware the seatbelt buckle may 'just' touch the child seat, but if the stalks on the buckles are so long that the buckle is positioned in a place where the seatbelt needs to bend then that is classed as 'buckle crunch' and too much stress will be placed on the buckle in the event of a crash. There is a picture on p26 of the instructions (I'm looking at the ones you can download from the Britax website www.britax.co.uk/media/4964844/101122-p3k_firstclassplus_d-gb-f_web.pdf) of buckle crunch in the forward position, this might help to explain what they mean by "must not be positioned in the belt guide".

It's hard to give advice without seeing your car, but Mothercare and Halfords are the last place you should be asking for advice www.which.co.uk/news/2014/07/major-retailers-fail-to-install-car-seats-safely-374000/

If you look on www.rearfacing.co.uk you can find a list of retailers that sell bigger rear facing car seats for toddlers. They are listed by area of the country. Have a look for an independent retailer near you, they will sell all manner of child car seats and more importantly should have a lot more knowledge than the high street chains. I would ask one of them if they would check the fit of the seat for you if you're not confident even after you've looked online or read the instructions.

Hi Alice,

Thanks for highlighting that bit. Instructions were read - admittedly more by OH than me as he had been making comments about the whole having to get one that fitted the car and "how hard could it be" so I decided he should be the one to do it, plus I've got too big to be able to do it myself very easily - and then I took it back to check it had been done right. Just been to look at it and I'd say it's borderline just too long comparing to the pic in the guide....so duh, I should have looked at it to see if it said anything to back up what either of them were saying and I need to get the belt shortened.

Thanks for the link about rear facers for older kids. There's one independent retailer which wouldn't be a full day trip away. I've had a look at what they've got and compared to the manufacturers car lists and there's only one that would fit the astra - another Britax. Unfortunately OH has gone and binned all the packaging from the one we got so returning it probably isn't an option and we could have the same problem with the buckle needing shortening for the other one so given that due date is 9 days away, getting buckle shortened is the priority....

Thanks again.

...and I've just found reference to the Swedish Car Seats website advising that webbed belts can be twisted a full three times thus shortening it and still be safe so if I can't find somewhere that will actually shorten it/change it, at least we have that option to fall back on.

argh...ignore bit about changing seat for one of the rear facers for older kids...the one in question won;t be any use to us for another 8 months :-)

Glad to help in some way! Good luck with your new baby x

Thanks

Did you get it sorted? The joie stage probably would have been a good alternative. Who did you buy seat from originally.